Congratulations to Kelly VanHout (Texas) and Selinda McCumbers (Ohio) who were both randomly selected to win a COPY of Max Frei’s debut novel “The Stranger”, thanks to The Overlook Press!!! For more information, please read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Stranger” or visit the Official Max Frei Website.

The Babylonian Trilogy by Sebastien Doubinsky; reviewed HERE and a highly recommended book for all connoisseurs of fine speculative fiction; modern fantastic city of Babylon in 3 vignettes; first in a projected "imaginary" cities sequence of stories by this extraordinary author

Slanted Jack by Mark VanName (mmpb reprint); Jon&Lobo 2 in a triple cross scheme with an unusual boy wanted by various parties and who is in the care of con-man expert and on and off partner of Jon, "Slanted" Jack of the title; if you are not familiar with this superb adventure sf series get the first one One Step Ahead and this one in preparation for book 3 Overthrowing Heaven which will be a June spotlight book and will have a review here that month. This series is a Personal Favorite

The Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner (first US edition) - "once there was a boy with an extraordinary gift.." - this is a book of major interest to us that will be checked out on publication and possibly reviewed here

Wings by Aprilynne PikeA fantasy romance in which a young girl finds out that she is a fairy after living life as a human for so many years and is thrown into a world of mysterious creatures. While fighting off evil creatures the girl is in the middle of a love triangle.

Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prienas and Antonio J. Caparo (illus) - Sequel to the Magic Thief series. Comm, a wizard's apprentice hears voices every time he works a spell. After numerous attempts of warning other wizards, Comm decides to take action into his own hands and deal with it himself, where he runs into some weird encounters.

Starfinder by John MarcoNo one ventures into the "Reach" and lives to tell about it. After life events cause a shocking change for 12 year old Moth, he decides to run away into the Reach, where another world is waiting for him and eventually the middle of a war that has been on the verge of breaking out.

Edit Later: Robert was kind to comment HERE and add a list of his favorite May books so I added the covers above and remixed a little bit the cover exposition for balance.

INTRODUCTION: “Nights of Villjamur” is the epic fantasy debut of Mark Charan Newton, who is also the author of the small press novel, “The Reef”. Having been in touch with Mark several times before, I had been aware of “Nights of Villjamur” for quite a while now, and the novel was one of my most anticipated fantasy releases of 2009. This of course was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I really wanted to like the novel and may have been unintentionally less than objective in the review because I’ve personally conversed with the author. But on the other hand, I’ve been easily disappointed by books with such high expectations. Fortunately, not only did “Nights of Villjamur” fully meet my expectaions, it exceeded them, being a novel that I plan on re-reading several times in the future...

SETTING: Under the Red Sun, the long-awaited Freeze, which is expected to last for decades, is coming and the Jamur Empire is preparing...

In the city of Villjamur, the corrupt ruling Council led by Chancellor Urtica wants to keep the population as low as possible, so tens of thousands of refugees from neighboring island-provinces are forced to starve in tents in front of the city walls.

Mad Emperor Johynn Jamur is convinced that everyone is out to get him, so he finds solace in drink. Because of this, his heir and elder daughter Rika left Villjamur in disgust and fear taking refuge with a monastic order, while the younger, more naive and sheltered Eir is the only one keeping Johynn company.

Brynd is the albino commander of the elite Night Guard, and hence of the whole Empire military, who finds himself on one too many supposedly safe missions that turn deadly.

Jeryd is a rumel—a longer-lived hominid race coexisting with humanity that forms the higher ranks of the judiciary and the Inquisition of Villjamur. As a high ranking Investigator, Jeryd becomes in charge of a series of strange murders that may lead to dark deeds in positions of power.

Dartun is a powerful magician—“cultist”—and godhi of the Order of the Equinox, the second most powerful magical order in Villjamur after the Order of Dawnir. Dartun believed himself to be immortal, but after discovering that he can die, he hatches a desperate plan to “regain” his immortality even if it threatens all of Villjamur and the world. Opposing Dartun is Papus, the leader of the Dawnir order.

Jurro is a Dawnir—the only known member of the ancient, all powerful and very long-lived race that is credited in legends with amazing magic and technology. However “he” was found wandering around without any memory many centuries ago, and since then has become sort of an official archivist, Palace librarian and historical researcher of the city.

Randur is a handsome islander from Folke, master of the arts of dance, sword and seduction. Though not really his name, he uses the opportunity left behind by the real Randur to come to Villjamur where he secures a job in the Palace as Eir’s sword and dance teacher. Eventually his path crosses Dartun, and Randur is forced to come up with an immense sum of money in order to receive the cultist’s aid.

Tuya is an artist with a distinctive mark on her face and she practices the second oldest trade for a living, though she has some other interesting talents a well.

Tryst is Jeryd’s human aide. Though usually loyal, Tryst has grown disgruntled by being passed over for promotion in the Inquisition because he is a ‘human’, and decides to teach Jeryd a lesson.

Finally, *** is the Magus of the underground Ovinist order which is spreading its tentacles through Villjamur and has particular ideas about how the Empire should survive in the Ice Age to come...

FORMAT/INFO: “Nights of Villjamur” stands at 461 pages divided over forty-six numbered chapters and includes a prologue that occurrs about fifteen years earlier which introduces several main characters. Narration is in the third person via multiple POV's, most importantly Brynd, Jeryd, Dartun and Randur, with significant chunks dedicated to Eir, Papus, Tryst, Tuya and several others. The novel splits into four main threads which are clearly connected and will most likely converge in future installments of The Legends of the Red Sun. Each thread comes to a natural stopping point with no major cliffhangers, but there is a big To Be Continued sign. June 5, 2009 marks the UK Hardcover publication of “Nights of Villjamur” via Tor UK. Cover art provided by Benjamin Carre.

PLOT HINTS AND ANALYSIS: “Nights of Villjamur” opens with a prologue on the island/province of Folke that introduces us to younger versions of Papus, Randur and Brynd. Kapp, which is Randur's real name, is an inquisitive ten-year-old boy; Papus is an up-and-coming Dawnir cultist that carries a very important ‘relic’ and is being pursued by a relentless enemy; and Brynd is a captain in the army, commanding an Imperial force and tasked with “restoring order” on a neighbouring island.

The novel proper starts when we are introduced to the city of Villjamur: “Garudas swooped by, engaged in city patrols, whilst cats looked up from walls in response to their fast-moving shadows.”

From here, Villjamur is revealed to us in all of its splendor and decadence as we follow Randur making his way through the city as a wide-eyed newcomer and meet Tuya at an upscale bar. We also get to meet some of the city’s more striking occupants like the Banshees that announce death, the Garudas that patrol the skies, and the dog-like black Gheels that come to feast on blood and corpses.

For the first fifty pages or so, the narrative shifts quite a lot as we encounter Brynd on a mission, Jeryd at the start of an Investigation, and the Palace denizens in Johynn, Urtica, and Eir, as well as the cultist leaders Papus and Dartun, but the beautiful prose, inventiveness and lyrical description help us navigate this part of the book with ease and become familiar with Villjamur and the novel’s main characters.

Once I fully got into the flow of the novel, “Nights of Villjamur” was a book that I couldn’t help but savor, lingering on several memorable passages, although there are various points when the action heats up so much, that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The novel re-reads extraordinarily well too since knowing what happens and having a better grip of the setting actually adds to the enjoyment.

My only complaint with the book is that I now have to wait a while for the next installment :)

In the end, even though it’s early yet, Mark Charan Newton’s “Nights of Villjamur” has established itself in my mind as a contender for Best Fantasy Novel of 2009. Highly, highly recommended...

Congratulations to Melissa Hayden (Pennsylvania), Jean Bruce (Florida), and Lesley Dworshak (Washington) who were all randomly selected to win a SIGNED SET of Michael Sullivan’s “The Crown Conspiracy” and “Avempartha”, the first two volumes in The Riyria Revelations!!! For more information, please read Fantasy Book Critic’s reviews of “The Crown Conspiracy” and “Avempartha” or visit the Official Michael Sullivan Website.

Fantasy readers are no strangers to long-winded exposition. For every gripping battle and flowing stream of dialogue and intrigue come pages of meandering description of the leaves of a tree or a tavern's common room that ultimately resembles all the others. Even combat only has so much appeal before the interest in stances, cuts, and parries becomes akin to a how-to on surgical procedures rather than a visceral experience.

Author Ari Marmell's Agents of Artifice is a prime example of what should be every writer's foremost axiom: show, don't tell. Marmell's successful application of breakneck character and plot development results in an excellent narrative that is equal parts truth and deception.

Agents of Artifice is two-thirds a tale set in its present day, and one-third a prequel to its own story. Less than 100 pages into the tale, I found myself completely stunned and enraptured by a plot twist that firmly has its way with the "nothing is what it seems" cliché, a pleasant surprise in an age where true plot twists are unforeseen. The twist propels both reader and protagonist (whose name I have intentionally omitted so as to preserve the surprise) back several years in an exploration of the events that led to the book's beginning before reinstating character and audience back in the present in search of resolution.

It's the sort of story that mandates a build-up to current events, and one that may seem adverse to skirting exposition. After all, if one is to understand a character's current predicament, one must be presented with a solid foundation, and that would seem to require copious explanation. Not so with Agents of Artifice: Marmell's method of delivery makes the venture into the protagonist's past just as compelling as his present. Readers experience events for the first time right along with the protagonist at a smooth pace that never falters. Readers learn along with the protagonist, allowing events to build to a crescendo of puzzle pieces snapping logically into place with each turn of the page rather than constant narration interjections.

Questions posed at the beginning of the book--who is this person? who are his friends? why is this or that name so important?--are answered upon delving into the character's past. By comprising the bulk of the story as a prequel, Marmell assures readers insight into present and even future events without bogging them down in details.

The pace also allows characters to evolve gradually, blooming and evolving before a reader's eyes. While each of his characters is interesting, all suffer from Marmell's apparent affinity for witty and sarcastic quips. Such biting dialogue is used for every character, which often gives them all a feeling of sameness--and that's when the attempts at humor don't fall flat. Situations in which characters should be running for their lives regardless of their personalities are all too often preceded by cringe-worthy banter that would charm any loyal viewer of primetime sitcoms, but not necessarily fantasy.

That's not to say the dialogue is always inappropriate; it often works well, and most characters do drop their facetious pretenses when the need arises for their true nature to be revealed. It's simply overused and sometimes serves to induce eye-rolling when a situation calls more for intensity and drama.

Agents of Artifice is an excellent example of walking a character's road in his shoes. It is a self-contained trilogy that doesn't require two to three years of waiting between books, and comes highly recommended to all fantasy readers regardless of their familiarity with Magic: The Gathering fiction.

Sometimes there's just that book that isn't high fantasy, or have a whole bunch of complex magic but yet it makes it a great read and leaves you with a good feeling in the end. Andrew Peterson's "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" is just that book that is a relaxing read and a great story rolled into one.

The story revolves around three children, Tink, Janner and Leeli Igiby who live in a cottage on the outskirts of the city of Skree with their mother and grandpa. A long time ago there was a Great War that took place and the Venomous Fang have moved into the city. These evil lizard like officers patrol the area, keeping the citizens of Skree in constant fear. However, the Fang are really looking for a set of jewels that hold the key to the great King of Anniera and the possibility to rule over the whole world, spreading fear and destruction wherever they go.

Even though the citizens live in fear, every year there is the great Dragon Festivel and people gather to celebrate and at sunset watch the Dragons dance in the Dark Sea. This is where the whole story starts picking up. The Igiby children have an encounter with the Fangs and are in grave danger.

After escaping the danger, the children go on a quest to find out what these jewels might be. Along the way they find out a lot more about their past, and what is to come in the future for the family. The story is laced with silly characters, adventures, and great story telling.

This book is pure magic from the beginning. Andrew Peterson is a song writer, and while most song writers turned authors fall short on the story and plot line, Peterson does an excellent job. There are several appeal characteristics to this book.

First, this book can be loved an enjoyed by anyone no matter what age you are. Adults will find the whitty conversations, and quick flowing plot-lines a nice easy read that is sure to satisfy anyone looking for a fantasy read. On the other hand, it's a great story for children and teens. There isn't anything offensive, and there is plenty of action that will keep the kids interested. I can even picture this book being read out loud to children.

The second major strength of this book is the characters. While there are silly conversations, all the characters seem real. No one is really one sided. Instead Peterson does a great job in creating these three children and their family. You really want to get to know and keep reading on about them and learn more about them and their adventures.

The culture of Skree and the people, serve as the third strength of this book. Peterson hascreated this whole world, where there are books that are referenced, and traditions that are followed. For older readers, he explains everything so that you feel as though you have grown up in Skree your whole life.

There are only a few slight drawbacks on the book. As this is the first book of a series, it does take a tiny amount of time to get flowing and get to know the characters and land around them. After the reader knows the culture and characters it's an easy read. The second drawback is that the book ends just when it's getting good. So you are left with a cliff-hanger, but one that makes you want to keep reading the series.

In the end, Peterson does an excellent job of creating a silly, witty world of Skree and making the readers feel as though they grew up in Skree. It's a great read for anyone of all ages, and there is a lot of promise for this series of books. I look forward to reading the rest of the books, because this series can only get better.

I´m still running somewhat late as reviews are concerned - but I haven´t given up! I already started publishing reviews of the Nebula Finalists at Fantasy Book Critic (the first one was written by my pal Jacques a while ago, on Ian McDonald´s Brasyl - the others will start to be reviewed from tomorrow on. After that, I´ll resume the reviews of the PKD Award and also of the upcoming Arthur C. Clarke Award. Stay tuned!

The Crystal Cosmos is a novella clocking at about 80 pages but pulling the weight of a book triple its size; I would say that extended to about 150 pages it would have been a masterpiece, but even so it's a very, very good read.

In one thread on a strange Earth-like planet but with some notable differences that I leave to the reader to discover, the "natural philosophers" and official dogma have a view of the Universe sort of like the science one today - material, uncreated, chaotic, no gods, billions of stars, the Earth revolves around the Sun - and it takes young goat shepherd Daphnis, uneducated but with a sharp mind. to perform experiments that show that actually some objects fall faster than others, the Earth is flat and the Sun revolves in a fixed and rigid orbit...

The Ptolemaic model of the Solar System and more generally the clockwork universe theory actually holds, so God or gods *must* exist since after all who created and started it, but it is heresy to claim so and Daphnis may find himself on "death row" if his claims become widely known.

In the other thread in a Multiverse analogue of our Earth, Sappho Ritsos an operative of the official "Trust" that supervises faster than light travel using the "altwhere" "drive" and protects the rights of the "natives" and their planets, teams with highly manipulative famous prospector Cankar who claims he found a Solar System made of a diamond like substance and wants mining rights.

Dense and worth at least one re-read I liked this novella a lot, but I felt a bit cheated of a masterpiece since 80 pages are just not enough to do justice to the wealth of ideas introduced here.

Liviu's take: I read only two novels from the list Cauldron and Brasyl since those are the only ones of interest to me.

I love Jack McDevitt's fiction, own and have read all his novels and loved most of them, some quite a lot, and *of course* this means you will see reviews of any new McDevitt novel here as long as I will contribute to FBC - starting with last year's The Devil's Eye reviewed in October 08.

I loved Cauldron the last Academy novel featuring Priscilla "Hutch"Hutchinson and found it a fitting ending to the series. Not the best of the series which is still Engines of God, but not the so-so Omega which was the weakest one by far.

Excellent storytelling and great characters with solid sfnal content is what makes Jack McDevitt a big time favorite author of mine and both the Academy series and the Alex Benedict one show that.

Regarding Ian McDonald, I was not that interested in his novels before the career defining River of Gods which was just superb; since then I started enjoying his new work including his superb short fiction set both in the River of Gods universe collected in Cyberabad Days and in his Tear universe.

This last novella is just mind-blowing and was the highlight of the strong Galactic Empire anthology, ed. G. Dozois that I found the best original anthology of 2008.I found Brasyl very well written and extraordinarily atmospheric, but I thought the sfnal elements do not coalesce well and River of Gods is still the superior novel.

So overall, I do not have an informed opinion on this year's award - which personally I consider the weakest by far of all major, pedigreed sff awards - since both novels nominated that I have read were very good, but not the respective author's best or in my top 10 of 2007.

Fabio Fernandes is continuing his superb major sff award coverage after the PKD with reviews of the Nebula novels and news of the event.

(Note by Fabio Fernandes - Following the trend set here before with the Philip K. Dick Award, nominees - by the way, said reviews aren´t done yet, but that cause-effect juggling in space-time continuum will be repaired soon, thanks for your patience and understanding - we are going to review, or publish reviews by other contributors, of award nominees. This is Nebula time - as you know, Bob, the Nebula winners will be announced next Sunday, April 26, 2009, in the Nebula Award Banquet in Los Angeles.

Parallel lives, parallel times, parallel universes. And a single country. Or not quite so. In Brasyl, Irish writer Ian McDonald opens a window to three distinct landscapes: one futurist, descending from cyberpunk tradition; other contemporary, an echo of news services and the fever of reality shows; and, at last, one in the past, in a mysterious and predatory jungle, an independent world inside a colony. Linking all these three universes, so distant from each other, and at the same time so close, is quantum physics, its possibilities and its consequences.

The book tells the story of three characters separated in time and space. In 2006 Rio de Janeiro, Marcelina Hoffman is a TV producer specialized in reality shows seeking Barbosa, the goalkeeper of the fateful 1950 final, when Brazil lost for Uruguay in the Maracanã stadium. In ultra-surveillance society of 2032 São Paulo, entrepreneur and street guy Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas has his life tured upside down when he gets involved with a girl member of a gang of quantumeiros, physicians that use illegal quantum computing to break any kind of code. And in 1732 Amazon, Jesuit father Luis Quinn hunts, in the name of the Church and the Portuguese Crown, another father that would be building his own theocracy in the heart of the jungle. And in the middle of all this, two conspiracies that cross the wall between realities: one tries to keep the multiverse a secret, while the other tries to open up the realities as the only way to save them.

But Brasyl is much more than this. It is a book that keeps the title Science Fiction has earned: that of last representative of the literature of ideas. Just because of that, Brasyl is not an easy book, even less a conventional SciFi book.

In the book, McDonald builds, in those three narrative lines, three discussions: the number of lives an individual may have, the quantity of landscapes and societies a country can have and, finally, how many different worlds fit in a universe. It is a tour, from micro to macrocosm, about the nature of identity. It is a book about philosophy, physics and the nature of reality. About choices, secrets and masks. It is a book about a country that never were and maybe never will be. About parallel realities, but focused in their similitudes rather than their differences.

In the end, Brasyl is not even a single book, but many, inside a single tome of about 400 pages. That is because McDonald wrote, between the lines, that he could have made made books with the same premise, the same elements and the same characters. Brasyl could have been a book about interdimensional intrigue. It could have been a action-packed book, with capoeira, gunshots and swordfights. It could have been an epic in the jungle. It could have been a book about the future of a country dominated by soap operas and reality cop shows, controlled by a surveillance system that monitors, from the stratosphere, every person, every object. Not that all these elements are not present in McDonald’s book. There are fight scenes in which capoeira is described in all its beaty, a afro-descendent version of Hong Kong movies. There are swordfights, both in 18th century chivalric tradition, and in a future one, with the Q-Blades, capable of cutting in the quantum level.

But instead, McDonald decided to spend most of the book writing about three characters and their individual parallel realities: a blond girl that is also a capoeira practiotioner and tries to keep her beauty tp be a little happier, and at the same time that maintains a love affair with a colleague without knowing if it is love at all; a priest, that is an assassin and a general; and a man that by day is an entrepreneur, in love for a Japanese descendent girl, by night is a cross-dresser, a dance queen, and in the weekends is a super-hero, a homoerotic fetish.

And McDonald tells these stories using a special, poetic and labyrinthine prose. The points of view going back and forth, both between the three main characters, as in their minds eye, their memories and multiples lives, too often jump to different scenes in the same paragraph. The structure McDonald uses in Brasyl completes the notion of parallel realities and is the mark of an author that has control over his book.

Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the nature of Brazilian people. Even if he hasn’t lived in Brazil, doing his research in a couple of visits to São Paulo, Bahia and the Amazon, and reading the few books about Brazil available in English, McDonald was able to capture, with amazing precision, th Brazilian spirit. And he did this without clichés, without hullabaloos, but with critical observations regarding the importance Brazilian people gives to beauty, soccer and TV. Besides, geographically everything is right and linguistically, it is better than most foreigners trying the language of Camões.

The author mixes his English with many terms in Portuguese, which causes a positive estrangement much more interesting to fellow English speakers, but here it becomes the only and real downside of the book. There is a great deal of misspellings: non existent diacritical marks, misplaced accent marks and some inaccurate translations. But that is something that does not diminishes the book’s brilliance and importance.

A hell of an accomplishment for a gringo, definitely Brasyl is a book Brazilians must read.

Fantasy Book Critic was given the opportunity to interview Alan Campbell via email before the release of his newest novel:God of Clocks. God of Clocksis the third book in the Deepgate Codex series and was released in the US on April 14, 2009 and in the UK on July 3, 2009. Thanks to Mihir for his interviewing skills.

I suppose I like Mr Nettle, because he's such a loner, and because of his relentless determination. And because I always wondered what his first name was.

Q: What type of writer are you. An Outliner or a freewriter? And could you give us a glimpse of your writing style and schedule?

Both. I outline, and then deviate wildly from it. My schedule depends on how close the deadline is, and on my mood that day. Sometimes I'll work in manic bursts, writing thousands of words in one sitting, and other times I'll just be staring at a blank screen for ages. I wish I could write to a fixed schedule, but my brain doesn't really work like that.

Q: The world of Deepgate codex which you have created is quite a encompassing one, how did you go about creating it? What was your inspiration and what were your inventions in context to world building? What's your take on the debate of character-driven story vs fully realized world?

Page by page, which sounds inane, but it's the truth. The Deepgate world began as a simple idea which I developed in more detail as the story went on. I don't really know where the idea came from, or if anything inspired it, but certain inventions in the book were born out of necessity. For example, a city under constant threat needs an army, but how do you support an army in this unusual environment? What allowances have to be made for horses? And so on.

If there's a debate about character-driven story vs full realized world, I'm firmly on both sides of it.

Q: If not fantasy which other genre would you have chosen to write in? And do you have any plans to publish books in any other genre?

I enjoy writing fantasy, so I'm happy to stick with that. I've heard it said that genres choose authors, rather than the other way round, which sort of makes sense and yet manages to be completely ridiculous at the same time.

Q: What book/books [irrespective of genre] have you read recently or in the past that have made an impression on you?

Everything by Cormac McCarthy. His prose is beautiful. I wish he'd hurry up and write some more books. Recently I've been reading a lot of Graham Greene. I love the way he gets inside his characters' heads.

Q: Which authors that you have read & are your favorites, would you recommend to your fans esp. in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, [you can cite other genres as well]

Read M John Harrison's Viriconium novels. There's nothing else like it out there. And I thoroughly recommend Clark Ashton Smith if you like gothic horror tales.

Q: To any new reader who hasn’t read any of your books what would you say about them and your writing so as to draw them to give your books a try!

Normally I just skulk around bookshops, wearing a fake beard, and approach people saying, "Have you read this? It's brilliant." But it's becoming more difficult now because the staff are on to me.

Q: What are your plans for the future? Are there any more books set in the Deepgate universe or are you planning a foray into another world?

There are three more books planned. They're not set in Deepgate, exactly.

Q: What do you do when you are not writing or reading books, what are your other hobbies?

My hobbies include having my old Triumph motorbike repaired each year and wondering when I'll have time to go out on it again before rust renders it unusable. I also enjoy gazing at my snowboard, and wondering when I'll find a spare moment to strap it on and hurtle down the slopes.

Q: What do you want to accomplish as a writer?

I want to write the sort of stories I enjoy reading. And I'd be happy if other people enjoyed them too. I'd also like a film deal, a million pounds and a yacht, thank you very much. Who wouldn't?

Q: You have created a vast & very alienistic world[in the sense of combining fantastical & sci-fi elements] how did you go about it & how much did your background as a Videogame designer help/hinder it.

People always ask me that, and I honestly don't know if a background in videogames helps when it comes to writing a book. Both processes are creative ones, I suppose, so I can see why people make the connection.

Q: God of Clocks ends the trilogy begun with Scar night followed by Iron Angel, what can we expect from this book?

Hopefully some surprises.

Q: In Scar night you focused only on Deepgate & the world below, however in Iron Angel the reader was exposed to panorama of sights and places & was given the rundown about the world’s previous god conflict, did you always plan to so drastically change the course of the series in the 2nd book & expand the horizons in such a vast way?

In a sense, yes. Deepgate was quite claustrophobic, and I wanted to write about characters and places far beyond its borders.

Q: Where do you see yourself ten years from now? Will you ever retire from professional writing?

I've no idea, so I'm going to say I see myself sitting on a beach sipping a Margarita, which is a nice thought. I'll probably be on holiday, but what the hell. I wouldn't want to retire – writing stories is too much fun. If I did retire, I'd only spend my free time writing.

Q: What was the reason for the rebellion/fight off the gods against their mother Ayen & what is Menoa doing in hell if he was on Ayen's side & if they won the war.... and why is Ayen not doing anything uptill now.

All is explained/revealed in the third book.

Q: Both your previous titles have had last line cliffhanger situations, Should readers brace for a hatrick?

No. The last book ends the series.

Note: The interview has been conducted for Fantasy Book Critic by Mihir Wanchoo who has assisted us in several other interviews and to whom we are grateful for his help.

NOTE April 2011: This Review Index Post is now superseded by the Review Index Page, so all new reviews are indexed only there!

As promised we are going live with the Review Index. We covered almost all the reviews from the blog, the few exceptions will be added in time once we straighten out the inevitable mistakes in such a large undertaking. We welcome comments pointing to such - eg wrong or bad links, misspelled names...

We have 538 reviews indexed and linked so far and of course new reviews are continuously added and will be indexed and linked on a weekly basis, while this list will be always linked from the main page.